Document translation and localization

Purpose

Translate business documents into requested languages without changing meaning, obligations, figures, or document hierarchy. Record terminology decisions so later documents remain consistent.

Scope

Cover prose, headings, tables, labels, captions, dates, units, currencies, and repeated terms. Adapt audience-facing conventions only where the input or reference material calls for it.

Excluded: Certified translation, legal opinion on translated wording, and delivery or publication of the translation.

Data basis

• Source document in scope.
• Target-language input, style instructions, glossary, and approved example translations.

Result

Create one translated document per target language and a terminology-decisions sheet recording source term, chosen translation, context, and rationale.

Quality criteria

• All source sections, table rows, figures, and footnotes are represented or explicitly listed as unavailable.
• Defined terms use the same translation throughout each target document.
• Numbers, dates, units, currencies, names, URLs, and placeholders are preserved or deliberately localized and recorded.
• Ambiguous passages are flagged with the source location and a translation note.
• The register and tone match the requested audience and source purpose.

Instructions

Translate meaning rather than word order. Apply the glossary before stylistic decisions and do not invent equivalents for undefined legal or technical terms. Preserve headings and list nesting. Do not convert a source statement into a stronger or weaker commitment. Use the requested locale for conventions only when specified; otherwise retain the source convention and note the choice.

Adapt before use

• Add the company's approved glossary and prohibited translations.
• Define target locales, date and number conventions, and whether currency conversion is allowed.
• Define the required review level for legal, regulated, or customer-facing text.
• Define how placeholders, product names, abbreviations, and untranslated quotations are handled.
• Define whether parallel translations should share one terminology register.